Two of my daughters have had a continuous cough recently. By continuous, I mean that they coughed about every 5-10 seconds. One of these daughters has asthma tendencies, which means I have to really stay consistent and be persistent when she has any respiratory illness at all. It seems to take her a day or two longer to recover from respiratory illnesses than her sisters.

When a person shows any signs of illness, it’s always important to immediately start herbal treatments before the illness gets the upper-hand. If you hit it hard at the beginning, it normally will not progress into anything serious.

Continuous coughing is so miserable. It can cause sore ribs, sleepless nights, and make the person feel like they could vomit if the cough doesn’t stop.

Let me give you the routine I’ve had success with when it comes to coughing {whether continuous or not}. There are different causes of coughing, so I try to cover all my bases. Keep in mind that most likely I will experiment with other herbal concoctions in the future and may find others things that work just as well. If I do, I will share!

And yes I do use all of these remedies at the same time when I’m dealing with a severe cough.

Lung tea is the first herbal concoction I turn to for coughs and congestion. I talk about it often for anything lung-related. It calms coughing spasms, yet expels mucous . Find the recipe for this amazing tea here. For adults, I give 3-4 cups a day for a bad cough. For children, I give about 2 cups a day. What I normally do is put the tea in a pint jar for the kids and a quart jar for adults for them to sip on all day. If you are adding juice to the tea for children to take it more willingly, I would warm up the juice first. Warm teas in themselves help calm a cough.

Onions and honey both help to calm coughs and expel mucous. I love that these are 2 ingredients most people have on hand so it’s easy to whip up a batch of effective, safe cough syrup. Use raw honey if at all possible. I administer a spoonful every 15 minutes with a bad cough until the coughing lessens. I then lessen my dose to every hour or two until the patient is much better. You can find this cough syrup recipe HERE.

3. Eucalyptus Oil

Mix about 1 tablespoon of olive oil with 9 or 10 drops of eucalyptus oil. Rub this mixture on the back and chest several times a day. Eucalyptus is one of the most essential essential oils {yes I meant to say that twice } you could have on hand. Read more about how to use it in times of illness HERE.

Garlic is such a powerful natural antibiotic. When someone really comes down with an illness, I grab the ingredients to whip up this easy 5-minute salve. I put this on the bottoms of the feet several times a day and cover them with socks. This is also great on the back and chest. Find the recipe HERE!

5. Vitamin C

I give high hourly doses of vitamin C when someone is having a hard time with an illness. The most effective vitamin C is in the powdered form, and my current favorite is Ascorbic Acid Crystalline Powder Pure Vitamin C by Nutribotic. I typically find a good price on Amazon. If you prefer capsules or chewables, I love the quality of Beeyoutiful.

6. Natural Antibiotic

In addition to the antibiotics that are received from the garlic salve, I like to give an internal natural antibiotic as well. Garlic can be taken internally, but children tend to not prefer that, so I go for something tastier if possible, or that is easy to mix with juice. The natural antibiotics I use the most is colloidal silver and echinacea. {You can find my favorite echinacea mixture in this post.}

I give natural antibiotics hourly when someone is coughing continuously, has a high fever, or something else more serious. I taper off the doses as the symptoms subside, giving the natural antibiotic for a total of 7-10 days. I normally give it hourly for a few days, then 5 times a day the next few days, then 3 times a day for a few days, then once or twice a day the last few days, depending on how well the patient is doing.

7. Blow Nose Often

And last but not least, anytime one of my children has a cold, runny nose, or continuous cough, I have them blow their nose all the time. This results in less drainage, which will help there to be less coughing and congestion. Many times a continuous cough is caused by drainage down the throat. Sniffing is not good – you need to blow it all out. This goes a long way to helping a person get over a cold or cough.

Like I’ve said, a more serious illness calls for serious action. When my girls cough almost non-stop, my mama-bear instincts rise up to the challenge and I hit the illness hard with these 7 steps. Normally without fail, the cough is much, much better by nightfall with only an occasional cough here and there.

*If the cough does not get better after following these steps for a few days to a week, please seek medical help. I am not a medical professional nor licensed to give medical advice. This post is for informational purposes only. Nothing I say has been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.This post may contain affiliate links.

Whooping Cough is currently on the rise in our country. Being that it is showing itself among the unvaccinated and the vaccinated alike, the pertussis vaccination is not proving itself as a protective means of avoiding this dreaded disease. In fact, according to this study, over 80% of children who developed whooping cough during the study were fully vaccinated. For more information on vaccinations, you can follow the vaccination series that I have started.What is Whooping Cough?Whooping Cough is a very contagious bacterial disease. It can be serious and even life-threatening. This cough begins simple and gradually grows to be more serious. The first 2 weeks of this disease are very contagious. People often don’t know they have whooping cough in the first stage, thinking they have the common cold, which is why it can spread so quickly. This disease has the name it does because often when a person quickly inhales and tries to breathe during a coughing spell, it creates a whooping noise. One of the greatest concerns with whooping cough is a person developing pneumonia. How is Whooping Cough Transmitted?

Direct contact with an infected person

Touching something an infected person has touched

Breathing the air when an infected person has coughed or sneezed

Being around a child who has just had a pertussis vaccine

Stage 1 of Whooping Cough {First 2 weeks}

Runny nose

Sneezing

Low fever

Slight cough

Stage 2 of Whooping Cough {Weeks 3-6, lasts at least 2-4 weeks}

Cough worsens into violent bursts of coughing

Patient may cough up to 30 times a day, especially at night

It may be temorarily impossible to breathe during a coughing spell due to the violent coughing, sometimes causing the person to turn blue

Patient may cough until they throw up

Stage 3 of Whooping Cough: The Recovery Stage

Recovery is gradual

Cough usually disappears over the next 2 to 4 weeks

Patient may have respiratory infections for months after

Though the patient is better, the cough may sound worse and louder

Natural Remedies for Whooping CoughThe only thing medically that can be currently given for whooping cough is antibiotics, which is only shown to help within the first 5 days of the disease when a person typically thinks they only have a cold. Antibiotics has not seemed to have any benefit against whooping cough after the first 5 days. Besides antibiotics not being effective after the first few days, I personally would not recommend antibiotics for this disease because it suppresses the immune system and kills the good body flora. This good flora provides 70% of the body’s immune system, so the last thing we want is to kill it! You need a healthy immune system to fight this disease and build a natural immunity to it. There are some natural remedies that can make a great difference in the severity and duration of this disease without harming the body’s immune system. These remedies will actually boost the immune system God gave us to fight sickness!

Natural antibiotic, such as colloidal silver. Colloidal silver kills bacterial infections and also boosts the immune system. I would personally administer a dose 3-5 times a day at least, or even hourly if bad enough. You can also rub garlic oil on the bottoms of the feet. {Thanks for the advice, Jessica :)} Garlic is a natural antibiotic.

Flax tea is said {in Be Your Child’s Pediatrician} to stop whooping cough in its tracks! Grind up flax seeds into a flour consistency. {I like to use a coffee grinder for this – but use whatever works!} For children, stir 1/2 tablespoon of this ground flax into 1/2 cup of water. For adults, stir 1 tablespoon of ground flax into 1 cup of water. Have the patient sip on this liquid until gone. Repeat this a couple times a day. It is said to stop or alleviate the cough in 3-4 days. For children, it may be a good idea to mix this with juice so they more readily drink it.

Vitamin C Therapy – taking vitamin C in high doses does not stop whooping cough, but it helps make the cough much milder. When using this therapy, you will know that you are giving too much if the patient has diarrhea – simply back off the dose a bit. Don’t be scared of taking too much vitamin C! It will not hurt you. You will just know to back off a bit if there are loose bowel issues. According to Master Herbalist Rachel Weaver, if you are taking the high doses of vitamin C, you should see a 2/3 reduction in coughing within 8 hours. Adults take 10 grams of vitamin C every day spread out over waking hours. 10 grams equals 2 tsp. Children should take 90-170 mg. of vitamin C per pound of weight. {1/2 tsp. = 2,500 mg.} So if a child weighs 50 lb., they would take about 1 tsp. a day. If the cough is not reducing within 8 hours, up the dose a bit as long as there is no diarrhea. My recommendation is to buy a good powdered vitamin C.

Do not use cough suppressants! According to Dr. Suzanne Humphries, you will end up with pneumonia if you do. We don’t want to suppress the cough – we want to cough the mucus out!

Lung herbs – one of my very favorite remedies for lung problems is a Dr. Christopher formula I mix together. It has greatly helped in our household with coughs and congestion! The herbs in the formula expel mucus to help prevent pneumonia, while soothing irritated and inflamed tissues. You can read about this formula here.

This herbal combination for lungs has been a lifesaver for one of my daughters. She began getting horrible coughs a few years ago on a repeated basis. The coughs were dry, had a ring to them and were happening too frequently. It seemed her lungs were weak: she would cough on and on if she was around a lot of dust outside or if she ran hard in the church gym. One of her coughs even turned into pneumonia. I knew I had to find something that would effectively target her easily inflamed lungs and draw out any mucus that needed removed.I was so thankful when I found this formula in Dr. Christopher’s book, Herbal Home Health Care.Giving my daughter just one cup of this tea when she has one of her coughing fits heals it the same day!

I also used this in tea form with my youngest last week. She woke up with a barking cough and constricted breathing. I made one cup of this tea and divided it throughout the day – it knocked the nasty cough out that day and she then had only an occasional, productive cough after that. {For my youngest, I added the tea with juice so she would readily drink it.}

DIY Lung Formula

Combine equal parts of the following herbs:{Click each herb below to read more information about them!}

Mix all these herbs together and store in a bag or container. You can buy most of these herbs here.There are 4 ways you can use these herbs:

1. Make a tea by combining 1-2 tsp. {I always use 2 when making medicinal teas} per cup of boiling water. Once the herbs are added to the boiling water, remove pan from heat, cover and steep 5-10 minutes, then strain. Adults drink 1 cup 3 times a day. Children drink half the amount. Since I use this formula for coughs and lung problems, I prefer to give a tea because there’s nothing like sipping hot tea to calm coughs, but the other methods below will also work.

2. Grind the herbs with a mortar and pestle, and place in capsules for convenience of taking. Capsules are easy to put together when using a capsule machine, but it can be done without one. Tea and tincture forms are the most potent, but capsules will work also for those that prefer them. For adults, give 2 capsules 3 times a day. Give children half the amount.

3. Grind the herbs with a mortar and pestleand sprinkle the powder on applesauce or yogurt. This is really convenient for children, but some adults may like this too! Give the same dosage as #2.

4. Make a tincture with the herbs. Administer 15-20 drops for adults and about 10 drops for children.

Not a DIY person? You can purchase the formula in capsules here and in tincture form here.

As I’ve said many times, God has created amazing plants for our use and good health. His creation never ceases to amaze me.

*Note: I take comfrey internally in limited quantities because I feel the studies done on comfrey are faulty. However if you are not comfortable with taking it internally, just leave it out.

Do you have a favorite herb or herbal combination for healing the lungs? I would love to hear it!

Hi, there! I'm Jill, an herbalist, homeschool mom of four, and disciple of Jesus Christ. Welcome to my herbal home on the web! Here you'll find ways to treat your family at home with natural remedies, as well as how to make herbal medicine in your very own kitchen. Get To Know Me Here!